Be innovative Kalumba urges teachers

GOVERNMENT has called on teachers to be innovative in the manner they run schools as grants alone cannot sustain their everyday operations.

Ministry of General Education Permanent Secretary Jobbicks Kalumba urged teacher unions to engage in income generating activities to raise funds that would help their members run their respective schools effectively.

Dr Kalumba said diversification of financial bases was key in alleviating the financial challenges that most schools were experiencing.

He noted that ventures such as fish production, chicken and goat rearing were some of the income generating activities unions could invest in, as some schools already engaged in those ventures were raising more money than what government gave them as grants.

“I am not saying government must not work; it has a role to play in the welfare of its people; but these institutions we have created as unions must be used productively for the benefit of members,” he said.

ZANIS reports that Dr Kalumba said this in response to concerns raised by the labour movement at the 13th BETUZ Annual

General Conference in Livingstone on Friday, where he was representing General Education Minister David Mabumba.

The conference is being held under the theme: A United and Strong Union for effective member representation through a diversified base.

And BETUZ President Felix Wakyembe bemoaned the current state of the economy and called for interventions to stabilise it.

Mr Wakyembe stated that the union was having challenges representing its members effectively due to the huge shocks the country was going through such as inflation and high lending rates. - ZANIS